SC rejects PIL for liquor ban

R Sedhuraman

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, September 30

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a PIL for banning or containing consumption of alcohol in the interest of people’s health and quality of living.

“It is not for the court to say liquor should be banned or not. It is for the government to decide,” a Bench comprising Justices AK Sikri and NV Ramana told advocate-petitioner Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay.

The petitioner persisted with his plea as it was judiciary’s duty to protect people’s health by restraining them from consuming liquor which was hazardous.

“How do you say it is hazardous? It poses problem only when taken in excess. Even medicines have side effects,” the Bench remarked.

The petitioner pleaded that studies had shown liquor was a health risk, irrespective of the quantity consumed.

Unconvinced, the Bench said studies had thrown up conflicting findings and some had even suggested that red wine was good for health. It was not for the judiciary to identify the correct studies.

“These are policy matters which are better left to executive,” the Bench remarked while dismissing the plea. Kerala had banned arrack, it noted.

The PIL had maintained that judiciary was supposed to protect the living standard as mandated under Articles 21 (right to quality life) and 47 (liquor prohibition) of the Constitution.

In the petition, he had extensively cited instances of ruined families and people getting cancer and various other life threatening ailments due to addiction to liquor. He had provided news items from The Tribune and other newspapers to highlight the need for enforcing at least part prohibition.

Article 47 prohibited consumption of alcohol except for medicinal purposes, he pleaded. The state governments should be asked to create health awareness by declaring the first Sunday of every month as Health Day for educating people about the ill-effects of cigarettes, tobacco, liquor and other intoxicants.

There should be a chapter in the school curricula for educating children in the 6-14 age group on the health and economic problems arising from substance abuse.